hey how you doing justin here today
we're going to talk about alternate
picking the c major scale now i'm really
hoping that you put the time into last
lesson and that you've memorized the
scale and that you can play it with all
down picks if you haven't then this
isn't the lesson for you you really need
to make sure that you can play the scale
up and down
all the way through from memory using
all down picks speed is not important so
just to revise
this is the scale c major scale in the
open position
using all down picks
[Music]
then you play the top note once
we started on the note c we went up as
high as we could in that position
in the open position now we're going as
low as we can
all the way down to the low e back up
and we're going to finish on our c chord
so alternate picking now we're going to
start with a down pick
and then straight away an up pick on the
fourth string
down
up
down on the third string
and then an up
down on the second string
up
down
up on the thinnest string down
up straight back down again so down
up on the open string down on the second
string
up
down on the open string up on the third
string
down for the open up again now on the
fourth string
down
up
then down on the root note up
down up on the thickest string
down
up on the open e
down
up
down on the a string
up down
now you want to start doing this really
really slowly okay really slowly like
down think about it
up
wear it down
don't don't be afraid of starting that
slow again it's about building certainty
so your mind knows exactly what it
should be doing and then it's going to
be a lot easier to speed it up that i'll
guarantee you'll get faster results
doing it that way than you will if you
go too fast and keep making mistakes you
want to go slow enough to get it perfect
as you can because practice makes
permanent so practice perfectly okay
don't forget that
so
one of the things that you'll find
really help will be saying the down and
up out aloud okay so actually going down
up
down
up
down
up because you'll find it harder to
verbally go down down down down if
you're not saying anything out loud you
might find that you do two downs in a
row or two ups in a row
before you ask there are going to be
times in the future that you might do
two downs in a row or two ups in a row
or a whole series of downs
the point of this exercise is to
practice alternate picking and getting
used to controlling the pick to do down
and up motions at various points when
you're learning different things you'll
discover that there might be a system
that's better in some circumstances than
the other for this exercise i really
want you to concentrate on very strict
alternate picking
saying it out loud helps the other thing
that can really help is realizing that
there are markers so you're always going
to start with the down pick
when you're moving on to the fifth
string it's going to be a down on that
root note
the fourth string is always going to
have that up on the open on both the
ascending and descending so like going
up the scale and down the scale you're
going gonna pick an up pick on the open
fourth string you'll pick a down pick on
the third string and on the second
string
and you'll pick an up pick
on the thinnest string so you've got
down up down up
down on the third string up
down on the second string up down
up on the thinnest string
[Music]
up again
down
up
down
and up again on the thickest string as
well so having those little key points
where you can double check that you're
doing the right picking you're going to
find very helpful as well
the key thing it really is and i'm going
to go on about it so many times that
you'll get sick of hearing it it's about
doing it slowly it's about taking your
time when you practice
don't be afraid to do it really slowly
if you need to
don't be afraid of going down
up
down
up
down
up
really
take it slow slow is going to be better
for learning this stuff i promise you
something else that is important i think
at this stage to mention is
being aware of the thing that you are
practicing so in this case you're
practicing alternate picking for for
many of you will be the first time
you've tried to do alternate picking of
a scale
so at this point i wouldn't be worried
about say open string notes ringing out
we've talked about that before about
muting the you know having the palm of
the hand and the fingers laying a bit
flatter to mute the strings yeah that
stuff's important it's useful but
especially the first
half a dozen times that you practice it
you just want to be focused on the pick
direction and making a good movement
there and ignore all of that other stuff
because the thing that you're practicing
is the alternate picking that should be
the focus here of your attention
once you're through that and you can you
can getting consistently correct picking
motions and doing the down up in exactly
the right place then at that point you
might want to start being aware again of
the open strings ringing out and trying
to let your
fingers fall flat to mute the strings or
letting the palm hit this you know doing
that little motion there to mute the
strings if you get one that's ringing
out that shouldn't be but don't focus on
that at the beginning at the beginning
you just want to focus on the the
directions of the picking and making
sure that you get it right
i really would recommend that you do the
starting on the lowest root note going
up as far as you can down as far as you
can and back up to the root note pausing
on the root note just to help develop
the sound of the scale in your ear
that's going to be super important
i wouldn't worry about practicing it
with a metronome at this point you can
if you prefer playing with the metronome
that's okay too
there are advantages of playing with the
metronome but i haven't been
i've just been doing it freestyle just
trying to make sure that my time is
reasonably solid it doesn't want to be
lumpy you want to try and keep the
rhythm consistent you don't even
[Music]
that that would be a bad idea okay so
nice and slow consistent rhythm with a
metronome if you want but you don't have
to
just give it you know the practice that
we got a couple of minutes a day for a
few weeks you'll probably find that you
make a lot more development than you'd
anticipate it's one of those things that
starts off feeling really difficult for
most people but it gets easier faster
than you'd think which is a great thing
hey so enjoy that practice and i'll see
you for some cool improvising shortly